


Glitters

by reetsu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ADHD!Lance, F/M, autistic!allura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 03:05:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12049974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reetsu/pseuds/reetsu
Summary: “Pidge told me you don’t have any objects to fidget with.”, Allura said.“They are all  on Earth. And sadly, I didn’t see any on sale on that space mall.”Lance searched for them and asked around, but none of the shops had any idea of what those were.“I might be able to help.”Lance’s eyes brightened, “Really?”[adhd!Lance/autistic!Allura fic about them being cute]





	Glitters

It was a huge relief for everyone when they safely arrived at the castle.

They had found themselves in many dangerous and life-threatening situations in the past, but this time it was a very close call.

It had been hit after hit. They enemy didn’t stop trying to take them down. A vast fleet of ships firing at them from every side. 

If they hadn’t formed Voltron in time, they wouldn’t have made it out of there.

After a few minutes to recompose themselves, they exited their lions. The last one to get out was Lance and when he stepped out of the Red Lion, the paladins could tell there was something wrong with him.

He struggled to take off his helmet due to the way his hands were shaking terribly. When he managed to, everyone could see how much he was sweating, his bangs sticking to his forehead. His chest heaved.

“Lance?”, Hunk approached, worried. He put a hand on his friend's shoulder. Lance shook it off and aggressively flinched away from him.

“Don’t...”, Lance said through gritted teeth. 

“Are you okay?”, Pidge took her helmet as she moved to stand next to Hunk.

“No, I’m...”, Lance continued to have his back turned to his teammates, “I’m not okay at all.”, he raised his voice a little and he sounded annoyed and angry at just a simple question like that.

Hunk stepped back, giving him space, and Pidge copied his actions. Allura and Keith were confused, but also gave him space. 

The yellow paladin immediately recognized what was the problem, “You’re a little tense, Lance. ”, he spoke calmly, “What we just went through out there was awful and tiring. Maybe some rest will help.”, he suggested.

Lance closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then exhale, “Yeah. You’re right. That’s what I need.”

Lance made his way out of the hangar, holding his helmet in his hands.

“Is he going to be alright?”, Allura asked once Lance had walked past the door and out of their sight.

“Yes, he just needs some quiet place to be for a while.”, Hunk rubbed the back of his head.

“You know what is going on with him, don’t you, Hunk?”, Keith crooked an eyebrow.

Hunk sighed “He is just overwhelmed. So many things happened at the same time when we were fighting against all those ships. He had to stay focused and worry about so many things at the same time, while constantly being attacked by the enemy. It must have been really tough for him.”

Lance had found himself being chased by ships, incessantly firing at him and not giving him any time to think of a way to escape from their attacks. Allura and Pidge came to help him, but the situation had really made him stressed. And just a few seconds later, there was already a new fleet shooting at him, before he could calm down even just a little. 

“Will he be fine on his own?”, Allura asked. 

He nodded his head, “He will be okay. When this happens, he likes to go to some place where he can be by himself.”

“When this happens?”

“This has happened to him before. He becomes sensitive to touch and sounds.”, Hunk explained, “He can get irritated and might snap if people keep pushing him.”

Allura walked closer to Hunk, “Is he autistic?”

Hunk was surprised that she knew the term. He wasn’t aware that Alteans would have knowledge about or experience disorders of that type themselves. He always assumed things were different for aliens.

“He has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Was diagnosed when he was a kid.”

“Does he have something to stim with?”, she didn’t seem to be asking this question out of curiosity, but out of concern for Lance. 

“No.”, Pidge was the one to answer this time, “He left all of his fidget toys back on Earth.”

During a lecture in the school’s auditorium, Pidge was seated behind Lance and could see him twisting around a tangle toy he kept hidden in his pants pocket. 

Allura looked to the side, she was thinking of something. She walked away from the group, not telling them what was on her mind, and left the hangar. 

\----

Lance covered himself with the blankets of his bed and laid his head in the pillow. All the lights of the room were turned off. 

Once he had calmed himself, things were okay again.

He took off his Paladin armor and put on his normal clothes. 

He played with a lock of his hair, curling it around his finger. He missed his fidget toys. 

When Lance tried to sneak out of the Garrison with Hunk, past their curfew, he decided not to bring along any of his toys, fearing he would accidentally drop it and anyone who would find it would know it was him who was breaking rules.

Of course Lance couldn't predict he would end finding himself flying a giant blue lion into space. Now he regretted not tucking one of them inside of his pocket. 

Back at the Garrison, Lance kept his toys hidden. In elementary school, some mean kids took them from him, thinking they were some toys to play with for fun. He started to leave them at home, which made it harder for him to concentrate during class.

When he got into the Garrison, his mother sent them to him. 

He never studied at the library, because he was sure they wouldn’t let him bring the toys along and he, also, didn’t want the others to throw weird looks at him. Lucky for him, Hunk was perfectly fine with studying with him in his room instead, where Lance could fidget all he wanted with one of his toys. 

He had a few episodes of sensory overload in the past. One was during his first flight simulation. Loud noises and flashing red lights weren’t a good mix for Lance. Plus, the stress of being evaluated in that moment and having the others students see him perform didn’t help at all. He was taken to the nurse's office to rest there until he felt better. 

A knock on his door, “Lance?”, it was the princess.

Lance pulled his blankets down. Being under them made his face so warm that the temperature of the room felt so cold against his skin. 

“Yeah?”

“Can I come in?”

Lance sat down on the edge of his bed and brushed a hand quickly through his hair, “Sure.”

Allura opened the door from the outside and stepped into the room. She also changed from her pink paladin armor to her usual attire.

“Are you feeling better?”, she smiled at him and Lance's heart skipped a beat at how beautiful she was. 

“Y-yes...”, he was glad the lights of the room were still turned off or Allura would have seen the faint blush in his cheeks.

“I would like to have a talk with you.”, she started, “Mind if I sit next to you?”

Lance scooted over to give her enough space to sit down on the bed. She smoothed her dress over her lap and turned her head to look at him. Even in such a dimly lit room her eyes shined so bright.

“Hunk told me the reason why you reacted like that. Why all those things made you so stressed out.”

“Oh.”, Lance glanced down, “I should have probably told you this earlier. I don’t mind other people knowing about it, I just didn't think that it would be necessary to mention.”, he looked up again, “Maybe if I had told you before I wouldn’t have made you worry.”

Allura reached for Lance’s hand and held it between her hands, “Of course I would have still been concerned for you.”, she assured him, “I care about you a lot.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Lance's mouth.

Allura’s expression changed to a more thoughtful one, “I also have been keeping something similar hidden from you and the others. ”

Now it was Lance turn to express concern for her, “What is it?”

“I’m autistic.”

Lance became wide-eyed, surprised, then thought about what was the best thing to say in response to this, “I wasn’t expecting for aliens to also have it.”

“I also thought it wasn’t something worth mentioning to the others. I was like you, diagnosed very young. My parents noticed right from the start that certain things made me upset and uncomfortable, things that didn’t bother the other alteans kids like they bothered me. But they never once thought I was “broken” or that “I needed to be fixed”. They saw me as their daughter, not a burden.”, small tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered her loved ones, wiping them away with the back of her hand.

“There were still some who couldn’t comprehend why I was different or why I couldn’t simply be like everyone else.”

Lance nodded his head in understanding, “Yeah, I’ve also been through that.”

People asking him why he couldn’t try to be more focused ,couldn't try to be less excited about the things that he liked, asking him if he was even trying to.

It made him happy to know that Allura was comfortable to share all this with him. 

“Can I hug you?”, Lance asked for her permission. 

“Yes.”

Lance moved closer to her, closing the small gap between them and hugged her. He was careful not to squeeze or lean into her too much. He also kept his hand up while his arm was wrapped around her, so it wouldn’t be touching her. He would have to one day ask her about her personal boundaries when it came to physical contact so he wouldn’t accidentally make her uncomfortable. 

When he pulled away from her, a small smile was on her lips again. 

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, “Some would think that someone with my “problem” wouldn’t be qualified to be in such a leadership position like me. But I believe I’ve proven myself more than capable.”

 _‘Do you think your son can succeed at the Garrison, Fernán? I mean, a boy with his “limitations” might have some struggles in such a strict learning environment like that. They won’t go easy on him just because of his condition.”_ , Lance had once overheard this from one of his father’s friend, days after he got accepted to Galaxy Garrison. 

He had just arrived home and the two were talking in the kitchen.

All his father said in response was: _‘I believe he will.’_

And so did Lance. 

“Yes, yes you have! You’re the best leader we could have ever asked for!”, Lance didn’t realize he was lightly squeezing her hand that was still holding his.

Allura couldn’t resist giggling a little, covering her mouth with her hand, and Lance’s smile only grew wider. 

“Pidge told me you don’t have any objects to fidget with.”, Allura said. 

“They are all on Earth. And sadly, I didn’t see any on sale on that space mall.”

Lance searched for them and asked around, but none of the shops had any idea of what those were. 

“I might be able to help.”

Lance’s eyes brightened, “Really?”

“Tell me, do you like visual stimming?”

\----  
The two were sitting, cross legged, on the floor of her bedroom. Around them were bowls filled with a transparent liquid and glitters of various colours. They were each holding empty glass jars. 

“My mother used to make these with with me a lot.”, Allura’s fingers dipped into a pile of glitters and move them through it, enjoying the feeling of it between them. Her eyes glistened as she remembered such fond memories.

Lance had already been in Allura’s room before and had noticed the small vials filled with floating glitters that she had on her nightstand, but always thought they were just decorations, unaware of how much important they were to Allura.

Lance only made one of these “calm down jars” once with his niece, when it was just the two at home. They had to watch a tutorial on YouTube and follow it step by step. In the end, the kitchen table ended up a mess, and Lance had to scrape all that glitter glue off, but his niece was so happy that they succeeded in making a jar, so he was happy too.

Lance never had one of those himself, though. Those weren’t as easy to carry around as his toys.

“Shall we start?”, Allura had the biggest smile on her face.

“Yup!”

The first thing they did was filling up their jars with glitters. Lance picked the white and blue ones, while Allura chose the light pink, magenta and purple ones. 

The liquid they were using for this wasn’t baby oil, but some other substance with the same texture that worked just as well. 

Once they were done, they put lids over their jars. 

“Ready?”, Allura asked.

“Ready!”

They shook the jars and then watched as the glitters mixed and floated together. 

Lance’s beaming face showed just how much happy he was in that moment. He could keep this in his room and pick it up whenever he needed it. 

“Thank you, Allura.”

**Author's Note:**

> if you like this work, please leave a comment, it would mean a lot to me.


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